Forward Together: Moral Mondays’ “Moral Week Of Action” Takes Off

August 25, 2014

Terrance Heath

North Carolina’s Moral Mondays Movement on Friday launched a “Moral Week of Action” that will run through Thursday to demand that Republicans “repent and repeal” their public policy attacks on the human and civil rights of North Carolinians.

August 23 – Education and Criminal Justice: In 2013, the GOP-led state General Assembly launched a sweeping assault on public education. Republicans passed tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy — eliminating $684 million in revue that could have benefited public schools — froze teacher salaries, and eliminated pay raises for advanced degrees. Republicans also repealed the state’s Racial Justice Act, which prohibited seeking or imposing the death penalty on the basis of race and allowed death row inmates to challenge their sentences on the basis of racial discrimination.

August 24 – Equal Justice Under The Law: The state’s “sodomy law” remains on the books. State law and a constitutional amendment ban same-sex marriage and other same-sex unions. The state’s anti-discrimination and hate crime statues do not include sexual orientation or gender identity. The state Republican party’s platform condones anti-gay discrimination.

August 28 – Voting Rights: Buncome County GOP precinct chair Don Yelton told the Daily Show that North Carolina’s voter ID law would “kick Democrats in the butt.” Yelton added, “If it hurts a bunch of lazy Blacks that want the government to give them everything, so be it.” Yelton lost his position, but the voter ID law — which requires voters to present government-issued photo IDs, and shortens early voting — still stands. The Moral Monday organizers plan a “Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears” voter registration and mobilization rally to end the week of action, and are encouraging other organizations to mount their own voter registration drives this week.

The North Carolina movement that so captured the imagination and inspired the hopes of progressives has now spread across the country, in the spirit of the movement’s popular chant: “Forward together, not one step back!”

About Terrance Heath

Terrance Heath is the Online Producer at Campaign for America's Future. He has consulted on blogging and social media consultant for a number of organizations and agencies. He is a prominent activist on LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues.